Varitone Paper
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The Varitone Saxophone: Sonny Stitt and Eddie Harris By Mike Benson I: What is the Varitone? !The Selmer Company of Elkhart, Indiana, famous for their finely crafted saxophones, once had secret. They went to great lengths to hide the research and development on a new instrument until they had it just right. On July 10, 1966 Selmer unveiled their secret at National Association of Music Merchants" convention in Chicago (Gardner). They believed they had created what would be the next big movement in music, both live and recorded: the electric saxophone which they named the Selmer Varitone. Selmer quickly won the hearts of many from their demonstrations at the Merchants" convention including Sonny Stitt (Stitt, Whatʼs New!!! Liner notes) and Eddie Harris (both musicians" use of the Varitone will be analyzed herein). What garnered their and others" interest so easily? !More new sounds, more colors, more options, and more volume. !The Varitone was, at its core, an amplification system for the standard alto and tenor saxophones (later developed for other woodwinds as well). Selmer advertised that the Varitone, “Lets you cut through an electronic organ, a whole bedlam of amplified guitars. Puts your distinctive Selmer sound in charge of any combo...” (Downbeat advertisement) A ceramic microphone was inserted into the neck of the saxophone with its cable heading to a specialized speaker cabinet through a hole drilled in the mouthpiece (!). This microphone placement was beneficial because it produced a higher fidelity sound as a direct amplification source, as opposed to an indirect like a PA microphone. Selmer chose a ceramic mic to withstand the large sound pressure the saxophone creates. !Sonny Stitt approved of this design: “I don"t have to worry anymore about scratchy mikes... this instrument opens up a whole new world. The ordinary saxophone to me is now old fashioned.” (McNamara) ! Coming with the microphone was a somewhat small1 control box/pre-amp that could strap on to the low B-Bb key cage of a tenor sax and came with a neck strap for the control box so it could be worn instead. The control box contains seven switches, one of which being the volume control. The other six switches and knobs became the main selling point. !The mail-in brochure states, “The Varitone is not just an amplifier. Its circuits are a kind of tone prism that breaks the saxophone tone into its component parts. The player can then combine these component sounds in new ways...” The Varitone could act as a very simple equalizer, making the player “their own recording engineer.” The black horizontal switches are labeled normal, bright, and dark. Normal would simply amplify the saxophone"s natural sound, bright would reinforce the higher overtones of the sound, and dark would lessen those higher overtones. Hence the name Varitone, meaning having a variable tone. The last horizontal switch was for the electronic tremolo. The tremolo feature had adjustable rate and depth but it was controlled on the specialized speaker cabinet and not on the control box. The three silver knobs, from top 1Technology started to shrink when the transistor was invented in 1947, although it wasnʼt commercially available until around 1960. These smaller and more efficient transistor shrunk the size of radios and TVs and quickly were incorporated into music. Robert Moog patented his famous analog synthesizer in 1964, around the same time the Varitone was in development. Previous to the transistor, vacuum tubes were used which took up significantly more space and were less efficient. to bottom, were volume, echo, and sub-octave, all of which were adjustable. The echo is just that, looping the sound at controllable intervals. This was rarely used in recordings and was quickly out done by new echo and looping technology. The sub- octave, or #octamatic" as it was labeled, was the biggest innovation and was certainly the most used in recordings. The octamatic produced a sub-octave (one octave) sound against the natural saxophone tone, similar to an early Moog synth sound. It allowed the alto to play in baritone range and the tenor in bass sax range. The mix of the sub-octave and the natural saxophone sounds could be adjusted to bring out one or the other, even to the point of eliminating the acoustic saxophone entirely. When playing with the octamatic, “the sound is similar to that of string bass combined with saxophone–on complex passages a starling effect. With only the lower note sounding, the tenor saxophone timbre is like that of a bass played arco, and the alto takes on the character of a baritone saxophone.” (Gardner) The combination of these seven effects added up to the advertised 60 sounds. !When trying to introduce and sell something new, price point is a major issue. The advertised 1967 prices are as follows (with 2015 inflation equivalents in parentheses): - Selmer Paris Mk VI w/Varitone set up for Alto: $1,220 ($8,573) Tenor: $1,295 ($9,100) - Club Model (came with a smaller speaker cabinet, no tremolo control or echo): Alto: $1,020 ($7,168) Tenor: $1,095 ($7,695) - Complete Varitone attachment outfit (came with a new neck with pick-up, control box, and amplifier): $730 ($5,130) - Club Model attachment outfit (came with a smaller speaker cabinet, no tremolo control or echo): $530 ($3,724) (Selmer advertisement, Billboard). !Also to be noted is the additional cost of a mouthpiece for the Varitone set-up whereas the mouthpiece must be drilled to fit the microphone. !Today"s Selmers are selling for around the same price with inflation adjustment. A Reference 54 goes for $7,820 and a Series III goes for around $8,100. !The only intact Varitone I could find for sale in 2015 was going for $17,000 from a NYC shop (Roberto"s Winds). Pieces/parts of the control box/microphone have gone for $400-600 online (generally needing serious repairs). !After the Varitone"s 1966 debut, it quickly gained popularity among musicians and critics alike. Several other brands created their own versions of the Varitone in the following years. The Conn Multi-vider, the King Vox, and the Hammond Condor quickly went to market with similar features at similar prices. Besides Eddie Harris and Sonny Stitt, who adapted the new technology immediately and made the biggest market for Varitone recordings, many other artists experimented with the new device. Illinois Jacquet recorded on Varitone with Sonny Stitt; Rusty Bryant attempted to rebrand himself (much like Stitt) after a ten year recording hiatus; Cannonball Adderley made a single recording on Accent on Africa with the new toy; John Coltrane was famously photographed experimenting with the new sounds that could be produced, but never recorded on Varitone; Lou Donaldson made many soul jazz/funky albums in the late 60s featuring electric sax work that have been heavily sampled by hip-hop artists of our day; King Curtis cut a track on Dr. Lonnie Smith"s debut album Finger Lickinʼ Good; and Clark Terry made an album with a Varitone adapted for trumpet. (See Discography) The recordings listed here and dozens of others were recorded between 1966 and 1970. The Varitone did cause a buzz within the press, amongst musicians, and with the listening consumers, buts it"s popularity was short lived. II: Reception by Musicians and the Press: ! ! Sonny Stitt was one of the first to hear the new sound of the electric sax at the July 1966 Chicago trade show and immediately saw the possibilities it presented. Only two days after the trade show, Stitt had his own Varitone set up for both alto and tenor and was eager to share his new sound with the world. In October of 1966, Stitt only had wonderful things to say about this new toy: !“It"s (the Varitone) a revelation. It enables you to probe and find. I notice when I put the octave on I can get another kind of groove altogether. Of course, you don"t change it every five seconds. You might play 16 bars here, and in the middle of the ballad where you"ve been playing with a tenor sound, you decide you want a guitar sound, so you push the button and there it is. It sounds so pretty...This instrument is great for the whole saxophone family. I would say it"s the best thing that ever happened to the saxophone.” (Gardner) !High praise from Mr. Stitt. !Stitt recorded his first Varitone album, Whatʼs New!!! Sonny Stitt on the Varitone (notice the three exclamation points, not a question mark), on July 28 and 30 in 1966, less than three weeks after Sonny"s introduction to the new technology. Stitt seemed eager to claim the Varitone as his own as soon as possible. With Whatʼs New!!! he became the first to record on Varitone. !Perhaps enthralling Stitt more was the commercial success of his new sound. The follow up album to Whatʼs New!!! noted the success of his first electric album: ! “Once in a while, a fresh new wind blows across the jazz landscape with an excitement that is as fantastic as it is rare. The response to Sonny Stitt"s first varitone sax album has been nothing short of phenomenal. Down Beat magazine devoted a special issue to #The Electrified Sonny Stitt," the album hit the best selling chart, and jazz fans all across the country wrote in to say #I Keep Comin" Back" to that sound!” (Stitt, I Keep Comin" Back liner notes). ! “...Everybody wants to make more money,” Stitt stated his Down Beat interview. “And with this new saxophone, I think this is the right improvement for me.